Effect of Different Fertilization Types on the Population Dynamics of Mites Inhabiting Soil Underneath Cotton Plants in Giza Governorate, Egypt

Citation: Egypt. Acad. J. Biolog. Sci. (A. Entomology) Vol.9 (2)pp. 83-88(2016) Egyptian Academic Journal of Biological Sciences is the official English language journal of the Egyptian Society for Biological Sciences, Department of Entomology, Faculty of Sciences Ain Shams University. Entomology Journal publishes original research papers and reviews from any entomological discipline or from directly allied fields in ecology, behavioral biology, physiology, biochemistry, development, genetics, systematics, morphology, evolution, control of insects, arachnids, and general entomology. www.eajbs.eg.net Provided for non-commercial research and education use. Not for reproduction, distribution or commercial use.


INTRODUCTION
Cotton (Gossypium barbadense L.) is considered the main fibre crop through industry in Egypt as well as in the world.In Egypt, it was always and stills the main cash crop for most growers.It is grown mainly for its fibre, but cotton seed products are also of economic importance.Cotton seed is presently the main source of edible oil and meal for livestock in Egypt.
The cultivated area of cotton is going lower year by year, in spite of its importance for national economy, textile industry, food oil and animal feed production and also its role in increasing and maintenance of soil fertility.Fertilizer management is one of the most important factors in successful cultivation of crops affecting yield quality and quantity.Applications of mineral fertilizers have unfavorable impacts on our environment and health.External agricultural inputs such as mineral fertilizers, organic amendments, microbial inoculants, and pesticides are applied with the ultimate goal of maximizing productivity and economic returns, while side effects on soil organisms are often neglected, Bunemann et al., (2006).The authors noticed that organic amendments such as manure, compost, biosolids, and humic substances provide a direct source of C for soil organisms as well as an indirect C source via increased plant growth and plant residue returns.Effects of fertilization on the soil system and especially on the soil organisms are poorly known.It was assumed that the nitrogen fertilizers stimulate the growth of the microorganism and thus, indirectly, the soil fauna feeding on them, Sabbour (2006).In Egypt, cotton requires approximately seven months from planting to harvest.During this growing season, fertilization has a major direct impact on cotton growth, and influences both yield and quality characters.Nitrogen and potassium are important elements for effective production of cotton.Low soil N is one of the major constraints to crop production in Egypt.The co-existence of mites and other invertebrates in a varity of habitats not only provides the opportunity for predation between the groups, but also affords ideal conditions for the development of more complex association such as commensalism and parasitism (Evans et al., 1961).Many predacious soil mite species are considered beneficial to man since they feed on harmful species (Axtell 1963;Rodriguez et al., 1970;Berry, 1973;Shereef et al., 1980;Zaher 1986;Darwish et al., 1990).In their study about effects of different compost amendments on soil biotic and faunal feeding activity in an organic farming system, Pfotzera and Schülera (1997) mentioned that the soil microbial and faunal feeding activity responded to the compost amendment with higher activity rates than with mineral fertilization.Highest values of both were found after application of biogenic waste compost.However, additional application of hornmeal in the farmyard compost treatment did not result in higher activity rates throughout the year.
The biological insecticides (bacteria, fungi, viruses and plant extract) have been widely use to their high specificity without harmful side effect on the surroundings (Sabbour, 1992).Unfortunately, the studies of mites inhabiting soil underneath cotton plants have been greatly hampered by the lack of modern reference works from which they can be identified.However, this great lack stimulated my attentions to launch just this study.Therefore, this work was carried out to investigate some ecological aspects related to the mites inhabiting soil under cotton plantation.Also, to evaluate the effects of different fertilization types.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This experiment was carried out at untreated cotton (Gossypium barbadense L.) field in Kerdasa region, Giza Governorate.Cultivation was carried out in April until harvest in September 2014 and 2015.Soil samples under cotton plants were collected at fortnight intervals from each plot; each sample about 1000 g of soil was gathered and placed in a plastic bag.Bags were transport immediately in the same day to the laboratory of Plant Protection Research Institute, A.R.C.The samples were placed in Tullgren funnels, upon a wire screed insert (30 diameter, 6 mesh openings).
A 40-watt bulb on top of each funnel served as the heat light source to drive the arthropods downward into a 200 ml glass jar containing 70 % ethyl alcohol.

The following fertilizers treatments were used in this study:
The recommended fertilizers used in this study were ammonium nitrate 33% N, superphosphate 15 % P 2 O 5 and potassium sulphate 48 % K 2 O as sources of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), respectively.The recommended units of each fertilizer kind per feddan representing N: P: K ratio of 66:30:24 were applied.Humic acid.Humic acid is one of the major components of humic substances.Humic matter is formed through the chemical and biological humification of plant and animal matter and through the biological activities of microorganisms (Anonymous, 2010).Humic acid is formed by the biodegradation of dead organic matter and is a major component of soil humus (Stevenson 1991).In this study, 30 gm humic acid per 100 seeds of cotton plants G. barbadense L. Rice straw: It was collected from South El-Hossinia Res.Farm Station (El-Sharkia Governorate).It was anaerobically.The rice straw application was occupied the main plot as a main factor with two levels (with rice straw, without rice straw), while the others fertilizers treatments were distributed randomly in the sub plots, net plot size was 3 x 3.6 m with proper irrigation channels.Rice straw was applied and mixed thoroughly the main plots at sowing.
All others agricultural practices were applied normally without using insecticidal treatments.The complete randomized blocks design with four replicates was adopted.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The data tabulated in Table (1) showed that there was 17 different collected mite species belonging to 11 families associated with soil of cotton plants treated with different types of fertilizers at Giza governorate in two seasons 2014 and 2015.The mites surveyed in the cotton fields were classified into three groups, predators, fungivorous and miscellaneous mites.The mites belonging to suborder Prostigmata were 9 species in five families, Cunaxidae, Cheyletidae, Tydeidae, Bdellidae and Tarsonemidae, while those belonging to suborder Mesostigmata were 5 different species in 4 mite families.On the other hand the mites belonging to suborder Astigmata were 2 species in one family, but suborder Cryptostigmata was represented in this study by one species in one family only, Table (1).
The same previously mentioned table showed also the relation between the kind of mite species and the types of fertilization, as the different astigmatid and cryptostigmatid mites were collected in the presence of the all tested kinds of fertilization.As shown in Table (2), the actinedid (prostigmatid) mites were higher in the abundance inhabiting cotton soil in comparison with other collected mite groups, followed by oribatid mites, followed by acaridid (astigmatid mites) mites but the gamasid (mesostigmatid) mites abundance was the lower category in all three tested methods of fertilization.The mean number of collected prostigmatid mites in case recommended (control 100 %) was 47 different mites, changed to recorded 55 mites in case of recommended + humic acid application and slightly decreased in case of recommended + humic + rice fertilization method which represented by 50 prostigmatid mites.
However, the mean number of collected gamasid, acaridid and oribatid mites was 11, 13 and 27 different mites in case using mineral recommended fertilization during 2014 season.On the other hand, the number of collected mites in case of using recommended + humic acid fertilization recorded 24, 28 and 41 different mites which changed to recorded 20, 24, and 23 different mites when using recommended + humic + rice fertilization method during 2014 cultivation season.Revealed data in Table (2) indicated that the collected different mites during 2015 cultivated season were higher in number than those obtained during the first season 2014.The number of collected actinedid mites in case of mineral recommended fertilization method was 58 mites followed by the oribatid mites (37 individuals) and acaridid mites (23mites) and gamasid mites 22 different mites in case of the same fertilization method.As shown in obtained data in Table (2) the mean number of collected mites in case of using recommended + humic acid fertilization method was higher than those recorded in recommended only and in case of recommended + humic + rice collectively.The mean number of the collected mites was (50, 20, 24 and 23 different mites, when using recommended + humic acid + rice straw fertilization method in for prostigmatid, mesostigmatid, astigmatid and cryptostigmatid mites, respectively during 2014 season and 60, 28, 31 and 44 mites during 2015 season, respectively.The obtained data also demonstrated that September 2014 was the most study period harbored collected mites in all different methods of fertilization and the method of recommended + humic acid was the most abundant contain mites.On the other hand it was found that August 2015 was more harbored mites in case of using recommended method (68 mites), but during September 2015 the mites were higher number than any other time when using recommended + humic acid and or Recommended + humic acid + rice straw fertilization method (91, 84 mites, respectively).
As shown in Table (3), the cultivated season 2015 was more abundant for mites then 2014 season in all the four collected mite groups, as, the mean number of collected mite was 187.9, 44.9, 52.4 and 104.8 actinedid, gamasid, acaridid and oribatid mites, respectively during 2014 cultivated season.On the other hand, the mean number of colleted mites was 194.6, 50.7, 57.7 and 112.0 actinedid, gamasid, acaridid and cryptostigmatid mites, respectively during 2015 cultivated season.Dun Xiao et al., (1995) studied the variation of community structures of soil Acari under different fertilizers conditions and noticed that the fluctuation of diversity, richness and evenness of mites was higher in chemical fertilizers than in organically fertilized soil.El-Nenaey (1998) mentioned that actinedid mites represented the highest number of mites depended on the quantitative and qualitative of organic manure fertilizes.Yassin and Sallam (2008) proved that the total numbers of soil mites in chemical treated soil plots were more than of plots treated with biofertilizers once, with the exception of mesostigmatid mites were higher in biofertilizers soybean soil.

Table 1 :
The different soil mites inhabiting cotton plants during 2014 and 2015 cultivated seasons at Giza Governorate

Table 2 :
The effect of fertilizers on the population of the different soil mite inhabiting cotton plants at Giza Governorate.

Table 3 :
The effect of fertilizers on different mites during two seasons